Adam Jones ends homerless slump with the 100th of his career

Adam Jones watches his 100th career home run sail out of the park in the seventh inning Tuesday night. With it, he also matched a career-high for a season with 25 homers.

Adam Jones watches his 100th career home run sail out of the park in the seventh inning Tuesday night. With it, he also matched a career-high for a season with 25 homers. (Gene Sweeney Jr., Baltimore Sun)

Dan ConnollyThe Baltimore Sun

Adam Jones said what we all expected him to say after he homered on Tuesday night.

It was his first homer since July 27. That’s a span of 110 at-bats, which is the longest such homerless drought in his career.

The homer in the seventh, against Philip Humber, was more than a slump-buster. It was the 100th home run of his big league career, which began in 2006. It also was the 27-year-old’s 25th homer of the season, which ties his career high set last year.

So what does all that mean to Jones?

He took the team approach.

“We are winning. We are playing good baseball,” he said. “That’s the most important part. Individual accolades, they are awesome, but we are winning.”

Great answer. But you know there has to be more. So we pushed on – asking Jones if sitting on Nos. 99 and 24 were weighing on him.

“We’ve been playing good baseball, I don’t care,” Jones said. “You guys care about all of that. I care about playing good baseball. And throughout 108 [heading into Tuesday] at-bats, we’ve played good baseball. So, I don’t care.”

Jones’ best quote came after he was asked about his recent comments in which he said he felt like he was on vacation – because he wasn’t producing the way he wants to.

So is he off vacation?

“I booked the flight back home. I’m on stand-by or something. I don’t know. But that’s why you’ve got 25 guys here to pick you up. … We’ve just been playing good ball and if I come back off of vacation, you never know what’ll happen.”